Historical

David Takes Consecrated Bread

21 Then David came to ^(A)Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech ^(B)came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?” ² And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me with a matter and has said to me, ‘^(C)Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commanded you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’ ³ So now, what ^[a]do you have on hand? Give five loaves of bread into my hand, or whatever can be found.” ⁴ And the priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread ^[b]on hand, but there is ^(D)consecrated bread; if only the young men have ^(E)kept themselves from women.” ⁵ And David answered the priest and said to him, “^(F)Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the ^(G)vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will ^[c]their vessels be holy?” ⁶ So ^(H)the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the ^(I)bread of the Presence which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.

⁷ Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was ^(J)Doeg the Edomite, the ^(K)chief of Saul’s shepherds.

⁸ And David said to Ahimelech, “Now is there not a spear or a sword ^[d]on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons in my hand because the king’s matter was urgent.” ⁹ Then the priest said, “^(L)The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down ^(M)in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here.” And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

David Flees to Gath

¹⁰ Then David arose and fled that day from Saul and went to ^(N)Achish king of Gath. ¹¹ But the ^(O)servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? ^(P)Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying,

¹² And David ^(Q)took these words ^[e]to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. ¹³ So he ^(R)disguised his sanity in their sight and acted insanely in their hands and scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. ¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman before me? Shall this one come into my house?”

David at the Cave of Adullam

22 So David departed from there and ^(S)escaped to ^(T)the cave of Adullam; and his brothers and all his father’s household heard of it and went down there to him. ² Then everyone who was in distress, and everyone who ^[f]was in debt, and everyone who was bitter of soul, gathered to him; and he became a commander over them. Now there were ^(U)about four hundred men with him.

³ And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me.” ⁴ Then he left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the fortress. ^5 (V)And the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the fortress; go, and enter into the land of Judah.” So David went and entered into the forest of Hereth.

Saul Puts the Priests at Nob to Death

⁶ Then Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered. Now ^(W)Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him. ⁷ And Saul said to his servants who were standing around him, “Hear now, O Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse also give to all of you fields and vineyards? ^(X)Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? ⁸ For all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who reveals in my ear ^(Y)when my son cuts a covenant with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you ^(Z)who is sorry for me or reveals in my ear that my son has caused my servant to rise up against me to lie in ambush, as it is this day.” ⁹ Then ^(AA)Doeg the Edomite, who was ^[g]standing by the servants of Saul, said, “^(AB)I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to ^(AC)Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. ^10 (AD)And he asked of Yahweh for him, ^(AE)gave him provisions, and ^(AF)gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

¹¹ Then the king sent someone to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s household, the priests who were in Nob; and all of them came to the king. ¹² And Saul said, “Listen now, son of Ahitub.” And he ^[h]answered, “Here I am, my lord.” ¹³ Saul then said to him, “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have asked of God on his behalf, so that he would rise up against me ^(AG)by lying in ambush as it is this day?”

^14 (AH)Then Ahimelech answered the king and said, “And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, even the king’s son-in-law, who ^[i]is captain over your guard, and is honored in your house? ¹⁵ Did I just begin ^(AI)to ask of God on his behalf today? Far be it from me! ^(AJ)Do not let the king impute anything to his servant or to any of the household of my father, for your servant knows nothing small or great of this whole affair.” ¹⁶ But the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s household!” ¹⁷ And ^(AK)the king said to the ^[j]guards who were standing by him, “Turn around and put the priests of Yahweh to death because their hand also is with David and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not reveal it in my ears.” But the ^(AL)servants of the king were not willing to send forth their hands to fall upon the priests of Yahweh. ¹⁸ Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn around and ^[k]attack the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned around and ^[l]attacked the priests, and ^(AM)he put to death that day eighty-five men ^(AN)who wore the linen ephod. ¹⁹ So ^(AO)he struck Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, both men and women, infants and nursing babies; also oxen, donkeys, and sheep he struck with the edge of the sword.

²⁰ But ^(AP)one son of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, ^(AQ)escaped and fled after David. ²¹ And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of Yahweh. ²² Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when ^(AR)Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. It is I who have turned against every person in your father’s household. ²³ Stay with me; do not be afraid, for ^(AS)he who seeks my life seeks your life, for you are ^[m]safe with me.”

David Saves Keilah

23 Then they told David, saying, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against ^(AT)Keilah and are pillaging the threshing floors.” ² So David ^(AU)asked of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I go and strike these Philistines?” And Yahweh said to David, “Go and strike the Philistines and save Keilah.” ³ But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the battle lines of the Philistines?” ⁴ Then David asked of Yahweh once more. And Yahweh answered him and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for ^(AV)I will give the Philistines into your hand.” ⁵ So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines; and he led away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. Thus David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

⁶ Now it happened when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech ^(AW)fled to David at Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. ⁷ Then it was told to Saul that David had come to Keilah, so Saul said, “God has ^[n]delivered him into my hand, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars.” ⁸ Then Saul summoned all the people for battle, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. ⁹ But David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; so he said to ^(AX)Abiathar the priest, “^(AY)Bring the ephod here.” ¹⁰ Then David said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, Your slave has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to make the city a ruin on my account. ¹¹ Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Your slave has heard? O Yahweh, the God of Israel, I pray, tell Your slave.” And Yahweh said, “He will come down.” ¹² Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And Yahweh said, “^(AZ)They will surrender you.” ¹³ Then David and his men, ^(BA)about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went ^(BB)wherever they could go. Now it was told to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, so he ceased going out in pursuit. ¹⁴ And David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of ^(BC)Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but ^(BD)God did not give him into his hand.

Saul Pursues David

¹⁵ Then David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. Now David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. ¹⁶ So Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David at Horesh and ^(BE)strengthened his hand in God. ¹⁷ And he said to him, “^(BF)Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you; and ^(BG)Saul my father knows that also.” ¹⁸ So ^(BH)the two of them cut a covenant before Yahweh; and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan went to his house.

¹⁹ Then ^(BI)Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on ^(BJ)the hill of Hachilah, which is on the ^[o]south of ^[p]Jeshimon? ²⁰ So now, O king, according to all the desire of your soul to come down, come down here; and ^(BK)our part shall be to surrender him into the king’s hand.” ²¹ And Saul said, “May you be blessed of Yahweh, ^(BL)for you have had compassion on me. ²² Go now, make more sure, and know and see his place—where his very foot is—and who has seen him there; for I am told that he is very crafty. ²³ So see and know about all the hiding places where he hides himself and return to me with certainty, and I will go with you; and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.”

²⁴ Then they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of ^(BM)Maon, in the Arabah to the ^[q]south of ^[r]Jeshimon. ²⁵ So Saul and his men went to seek him, and they told David, and he came down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. And Saul heard it and pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. ²⁶ And Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain; and David was hurrying to get away from Saul, but Saul and his men ^(BN)were surrounding David and his men to seize them. ²⁷ But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land.” ²⁸ So Saul returned from pursuing David and went to meet the Philistines; therefore they called that place ^[s]the Rock of Escape. ^29 [t]Then David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of ^(BO)Engedi.

David Does Not Kill Saul

24 Now ^(BP)when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, ^(BQ)he was told, saying, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” ² Then ^(BR)Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. ³ And he came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul ^(BS)went in to ^[u]relieve himself. Now ^(BT)David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. ⁴ Then the men of David said to him, “Behold, ^(BU)this is the day of which Yahweh said to you, ‘Behold, ^(BV)I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good in your eyes.’” Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly. ⁵ And it happened afterward that ^(BW)David’s heart struck him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. ⁶ So he said to his men, “^(BX)Far be it from me because of Yahweh that I should do this thing to my lord, the anointed of Yahweh, to send forth my hand against him, since he is the anointed of Yahweh.” ⁷ And David tore his men to pieces with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, ^[v]left the cave, and went on his way.

⁸ Now afterward David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, ^(BY)David bowed with his ^[w]face to the ground and prostrated himself. ⁹ And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men, saying, ‘Behold, David seeks ^[x]to do you evil’? ^10 (BZ)Behold, this day your eyes have seen that Yahweh had given you today into my hand in the cave, and ^(CA)some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you; and I said, ‘I will not send forth my hand against my lord, for he is the anointed of Yahweh.’ ¹¹ Now, ^(CB)my father, see! Indeed, see the edge of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the edge of your robe and did not kill you, know and see that there is no evil or transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you ^(CC)are lying in wait for my life to take it. ^12 (CD)May Yahweh judge between ^[y]you and me, and may Yahweh avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you. ¹³ As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘^(CE)Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness’; but my hand shall not be against you. ¹⁴ After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? ^(CF)After a dead dog, after ^(CG)a single flea? ^15 (CH)Therefore Yahweh be judge and execute justice between ^[z]you and me; and may He see and ^(CI)plead my cause and execute justice for me to escape from your hand.”

¹⁶ Now it happened that when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “^(CJ)Is this your voice, my son David?” Then Saul lifted up his voice and wept. ^17 (CK)And he said to David, “You are more righteous than I; for ^(CL)you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt evil with you. ¹⁸ And you have declared today that you have done good to me, that ^(CM)Yahweh surrendered me into your hand, and yet you did not kill me. ¹⁹ For if a man ^(CN)finds his enemy, will he let him go away ^[aa]safely? May Yahweh therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day. ²⁰ So now, behold, ^(CO)I know that you will surely be king, and that ^(CP)the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand. ²¹ So now ^(CQ)swear to me by Yahweh that you will not cut off my seed after me and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s household.” ²² So David swore to Saul. And Saul went to his home, but David and his men went up to ^(CR)the fortress.